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Alan Virdon
Colonel''' Alan Virdon''' was the captain of a small ship leaving Earth in 1980, along with Jones and Burke. They were on a routine mission to Alpha Centauri which suddenly got caught in "radioactive turbulence" and crashed to an unfamiliar planet. Virdon was shocked to find a photo of New York from 2503, 500 years after they left Earth. He was a gentle man, we see a photo he carries with him of his wife and son, Chris. He wanted more than anything else to return to them and his Houston, Texas home, and was always optimistic of his chances. In the meantime, he tried to reason with any apes who would listen to him, and to bring compassion and twentieth century technology to both species. Zaius and Urko spoke of another spaceship having landed ten years before, but this mystery was never further explained. Virdon was raised on a farm in Jackson County, Texas (near Houston), where he learned to ride horses. He learned wood-carving and butter-churning; and alligator-wrestling in Florida, and became proficient in just about every field of agriculture, engineering, medicine and technology.The astronauts demonstrated a remarkable breadth of knowlege throughout their adventures on-screen and in spin-off media, as detailed in Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology by Rich Handley Virdon and Burke spent time, during their training, at 'Hanson Point' - a location they revisited centuries later (in The Deception). [http://pota.goatley.com/comics/potauk100_part2.pdf Glossary to the Planet Of The Apes Jim Whitmore (1976)] Notes * Date of birth is approximated based upon the age of actor Ron Harper at the time of filming corresponding to the Planet of the Apes timeline. * Virdon's rank appeared in an early draft of pilot episode script. His middle initial appeared in a script for the unfilmed episode The Hostage. * As revealed in The Surgeon, Virdon's bloodtype was 'O'. * Galen later told us (in the 1981 TV movie inserts) that Virdon and Burke escaped in a ship but who knows where to? Appearances *Unfilmed TV Pilot Episodes **Episode One **Episode Two * **"Escape from Tomorrow" **"The Gladiators" **"The Trap" **"The Good Seeds" **"The Legacy" **"Tomorrow's Tide" **"The Surgeon" **"The Deception" **"The Horse Race" **"The Interrogation" **"The Tyrant" **"The Cure" **"The Liberator" **"Up Above the World So High" * Unfilmed TV Episodes :* A Fallen God :* Hostage :* The Trek :* Freedom Road :* The Mine :* The Trial * Power Records Planet of the Apes "Little LP's", 1974 :* Battle of Two Worlds :* Mountain of The Delphi :* Dawn of The Tree People :* Volcano * Brown & Watson 'Planet of the Apes' Annual, 1975 :* Journey Into Terror :* A Promise Kept :* When The Earth Shakes :* The Scavangers :* Swamped * Brown & Watson 'Planet of the Apes' Annual, 1976 :* Galen's Guerrillas :* From Out Of The Past :* Pit Of Doom :* The Captive :* Raiding Party :* Ship Of Fools :* When The Ghosts Walk :* The Marksman * Brown & Watson 'Planet of the Apes' Annual, 1977 :* The Prophet :* Breakout :* The Arsenal :* From Out Of The Sky * El Planeta de Los Simios Argentinian Comics, 1977 :* The Wandering Jew :* New Life... On The Old Planet :* Depth :* The Beach Of Time :* Ultrasonic :* The Gods Of The Stars :* The Master Of The Forests :* The Zombies :* The Circus :* Rockets * Fan-Produced Audio Drama :* Values (voiced by Peter Hinchman) * Fan-Produced Comics :* Going Home :* Return To Yesterday The Planet of the Apes UK Stage Show, first performed in 1976, featured two astronaut characters based on Virdon and Burke. The character variously named 'Jeff', 'Mike', 'Geoff' or 'Jeff Brent' most closely resembled Virdon, and was played by Geoff Freshwater and Mike Dalton in 1976 and voiced by Chris Sutton in 2013. References '']] '']] '']] Category:Humans Category:Living Characters Category:Male Characters Category:TV Characters Category:Astronauts Category:Neutral Characters Category:Characters